But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Jesus assumes something surprising here: that real prayer happens away from an audience. "Go into your room and shut the door" — not because prayer is shameful, but because He's aware of how easily it gets performed for other people instead of actually spoken to God.
That's oddly reassuring if the idea of prayer makes you think of eloquent people saying the right words in front of others. This verse describes the opposite — a closed door, no one watching, nothing to get right in front of anyone. Just you and a Father who, Jesus says, "sees in secret."
There's something in that phrase worth sitting with: sees in secret. Not just hears the words, but sees the person behind them — the version of you that exists when no one else is looking. That's who this prayer is addressed to, and apparently, that's the version God is actually interested in.
If the thought of praying alone, unscripted, feels strange, that closed-door moment might be exactly where an honest conversation with God can start.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.